GAFCON Australasia Conference Opens with Announcement of New Diocese

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The GAFCON Australasia Conference has opened in Canberra with over 350 delegates gathering together from Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific.

In his opening keynote address on the first evening the chair of GAFCON Australia, Bishop Richard Condie, announced the formation of a new Diocese of the Southern Cross. Speaking to a packed room, Condie reminded those present that GAFCON Australia had originally been set up as a “break glass in case of emergency” organisation. The emergency, he stressed, had now come:

This walking away from the scriptures and the ridiculing of those who uphold them as we have seen in some presidential addresses by bishops in Australian Synods this year, IS the crisis, it IS the emergency to which we must respond.

He went on to describe the emergency facing the Anglican Church of Australia as brought about by the existence of two gospels, one of which was no gospel at all. In response GAFCON Australia has been working towards 4 goals:

  1. Develop and promote a national strategy to reach Australia through healthy faithful biblical orthodox Anglican churches.
  2. Promote reform and repentance within the Anglican Church of Australia.
  3. Support and strengthen healthy faithful biblical orthodox Anglican churches throughout Australia.
  4. Enable the Diocese of the Southern Cross to be fully formed within 2-years.

That diocese has now been formed. Condie then addressed the question of leadership:

At our conference on Thursday we will commission [former Archbishop of Sydney] Bishop Glenn Davies as the initial bishop of the Diocese of the Southern Cross to provide episcopal oversight to its affiliated congregations.

He also let the conference know that a first congregation had joined – Southern Cross Anglican Beenleigh and Logan, comprising the former vicar and many members from Beenleigh Anglican in the Diocese of Southern Queensland (Brisbane).

Bishop Glenn Davies & Rev. Peter Palmer (Beenleigh Anglican). photo: Roger Fitzhardinge

Bishop Condie told the conference he expected this would be “the first of many who will leave the Anglican Church of Australia due to false teaching”.

Bishop Condie closed with a charge to the entire conference, echoing words from the 2018 GAFCON in Jerusalem:

We need men and women 

of perseverance

of courage and conviction 

of determination and grace 

who are filled with the spirit 

who are characterised by repentance and faith.

To stand for Jesus

To go for him

To Proclaim Christ Faithfully to the Nations.

The session then heard from a number of people in different dioceses around Australia who spoke of their particular difficulties with bishops and synods as they sought to remain faithful.

Speaking to davidould.net shortly before giving his address, Condie said

This is a critical moment for the Anglican Church of Australia.

The evidence from Condie’s address tonight is that GAFCON Australia is more than willing to meet the challenge of that moment.

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  1. Chris

    Extreme patience and forbearance have eventually come to an end after 19 years.

  2. vaughan brown

    Hi,

    I am a Sydney Anglican and have been all my life.
    I fear we should all be very concerned that Glenn Davies is the one who has been put in charge of the new Southern Cross diocese.
    At GAFCON we were told, “[Bishop Condie] went on to describe the emergency facing the Anglican Church of Australia as brought about by the existence of two gospels, one of which was no gospel at all”.
    Glenn does not believe that the Gospel of Grace is the gospel of the Anglicans formularies.
    I am certain of this because when I formally objected to the ordination of an ordinand from my parish in Northern Sydney on the basis that this ordinand said he did not believe in the doctrines of grace, the Archbishop at the time, Peter Jensen, ordained this ordinand anyway.
    It was not until ten years later that I finally received an explanation from [Michael Stead on behalf] of Glenn Davies (and Glenn had been the Bishop of Northern Sydney at the time of the ordination to which I had objected). Glenn said to me that the reason my objection had been overruled was because, “you do not have the right to impose your inferences on the consciences of others”.
    The ordinand to whose ordination I had objected has been a Senior Minister in Sydney for the last ten years. I don’t know how many more such clergy have been ordained during this time.
    So the “Gospel” that Glenn recognises as “Anglican” to is not the gospel of grace; Glenn himself may believe in the gospel of grace but he clearly does not recognise this gospel of grace as “orthodox” Anglican teaching as plainly laid out as “the standard of our doctrine” in our foundational Anglican documents, the 39 Article and the Book of Common Prayer.
    Further to this I feel that we should be asking why the leaders of GAFCON are prepared to compromise on some foundational doctrines (like grace) but not others (like marriage).
    Does the Constitution of the Anglican Church in Australia distinguish between “primary” and “secondary” doctrines? Do the 39 Articles or the Book of Common Prayer distinguish between “primary” and “secondary” doctrines?
    Glenn, and all the Sydney Regional Anglican bishops, have decided, unilaterally, that only some Anglican doctrines are worth making a stand on.
    This is not right. This is not what faithful Anglican leaders should be doing.
    Glenn has proved that he should not be trusted to found the Diocese of the Southern Cross.
    Sincerely,
    Vaughan Brown

  3. Robert Bruce

    The evil โ€œprogressivesโ€ of the A.C.A. (Apostatesโ€™ Church of Australia) must be feeling elated because the Bible-based evangelicals have decided at last to depart from their woke, Satanic company, and to leave them with the Gothic buildings that they value so highly. Now the โ€œprogressivesโ€ can get on with blessing same-sex marriages and marrying men to pigs, and enlarging their paedophile networks. Truly, for them now the sky is the limit.

    They will be mystified when groups of Bible-based Christians meeting in clubs or schools grow exponentially, as people who were uncertain about Gothic buildings with stained-glass windows come to find Jesus in surroundings that do not threaten them. The Diocese of the Southern Cross will soon grow bigger than the old A.C.A. which will be left an irrelevant anachronism.

    The โ€œprogressivesโ€ will surely find that the sky is the limit but they will never enter the Land Above the Skies where Jesus will live with His people forever.

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